Sunday, July 13, 2014

Is Andy Serkis a mo-cap character in Star Wars? “I…” he begins, “…can’t answer that.”

Is he human? “I can’t answer that.”

Is he made of metal? “I can’t answer that. I’d love to be able to tell you,” he insists, seemingly sincerely. But of course he can’t. JJ Abrams’ production of Episode VII, currently bunkered at Pinewood Studios outside London, is a black hole of character and plot information. Like the rest of the cast – from Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie to Girls’ Adam Driver, from Carrie Fisher to Mark Hamill – Serkis has been sworn to secrecy on pain of Jedi death. But how about another tack…

Did he see Harrison Ford fracture his leg on the door of the Millennium Falcon?

“No, I didn’t,” he replies with a sympathetic wince. “Poor guy. But apparently he’s been – pardon the pun – a real trouper. He wants to get back on set as quickly as possible and get on with it.”

Still, every cloud and all that: fanboys and fangirls the world over must surely have been rejoicing that the Millennium Falcon being used on set is sturdy enough to break bone. It’s clearly not balsa-wood flimsy nor CGI smoke-and-mirrors. It’s not even mo-cap trickery. It’s a proper, Rebel-shuttling, hunk of old-school spacecraft.

“Yeah, if you’re gonna get hospitalised, that’s the way to do it,” Serkis laughs. “But that’s the one thing that’s possibly safe to say: JJ is absolutely, 100 per cent honouring the original three movies. It’s filled with the love and sensibility of those films.”

Is he related to Boba Fett?

“I can probably safely say that I’m not related to Boba Fett,” he smiles.

So does that mean that it’ll be virtually all humans while “aliens” will be kept on the fringes? Does that mean that there will be no vast epic planets but only basic barren type planets with some human settlements and sparse indigenous lifeforms? Does that mean that there will be less than a handful of Force users?

Which tone will be used the SW, ESB or ROTJ one? A bit of each? So darkish in tone but not as dark as II or III?

I am totally with you on adding some elements from the prequels to the new films. I had no problem with Coursaunt (sorry about spelling) as the capital of the Republic and Empire, or many or the design elements. The Clone Troops were cool I just wish they were real actors in real costumes instead of clearly CGI actors created in a computer.

True, and you are correct but I am afraid that JJ & CO. will overlook that fact simply because the prequels made Coursaunt famous and casual fans only know it as a planet shown in the prequels and special edition ROTJ. i hope they don’t distance themselves from making references to the Eps.I-III simple because they are the prequels. As fan of both the prequels (but understand why many dislike them) they are still canon and hope since they have a stigma to them that JJ does not just ignore them completely.

On the other hand i don’t want them to shoe horn in references for the hell of it either. Timeline wise the sequels happened 50+ years after ROTS, so the new generation technically would not have been born until way later. It would like me commenting on events that happened in the sixties as though i was there to see it which i wasn’t

As an OT guy I wouldn’t mind prequel references depending on what they might be. I wouldn’t like to see some of the more badly designed aliens (dex, sabulba), but I really liked the Kaminoans and other humanoid beings. Coruscant locations were really cool, particularly the underworld. Atapau and that glowing mushroom world were pretty cool too.

Yes, if this is the third trilogy in a trilogy of trilogies, this should be the one that ties everything together. I truly hope that they pull in elements from both trilogies! And, with Luke older and wiser and no longer needing to see his Jedi ghosts in the same way that he saw them in life, it would be nice to see Hayden, Ewan, and perhaps even Sam or Liam back to offer advice and whatnot. And Yoda, of course.

And I would be happy to see pretty much any of the Prequel planets again. It’s actually hard to see how they could do it WITHOUT Coruscant.

I still dream, however, of an early scene where Luke is training new Jedi and tells them how the Jedi in the days of old had gotten so offtrack that they had actually believed that the Force was dependent on something called midichlorians! Thank goodness, he says, we now know that it’s a mystical energy field created by all living things!

Another way that should please both fans is they could easily sprinkle in some droids or vehicles from both trilogies in the backgrounds. Along with some new ones of course. What a hanger of options to choose from! As a PT hater I find this totally acceptable… and even cool.

Indeed, even though the prequels could have been improved, there is certainly no reason to shun them like the plague and pretend they never happened.

If they will somehow wrap up the story in Episode IX, it would in fact be very nice if Qui-Gon’s spirit appeared and spoke some words of wisdom, maybe acknowledging that it was he who set everything in motion a lifetime ago, when he insisted that Anakin be trained.

For good and evil, as it would turn out.

Coruscant, as others have said, is a planet hard to completely avoid. If Luke and Leia have discovered their “roots”, a visit to Naboo is in order. I could even tolerate a Gungan or two. Preferably in the background, slightly out of focus and with no speaking lines, though.

I would stay away from the PT as this trilogy needs to tie in more with the OT. The ironic thing is if JJ and Disney go all old school with locations and special effects, you are essentially going to have 2 SW stories for fanbases: The PT & OT Special Edition will be 1 story of the Tragedy of Darth Vader. Then the OOT & ST will be the story of Luke, Leia and Han and their offspring. The 3 trilogies will never mesh because they will never all look alike. If the ST goes more with the PT special effects, then it won’t look like the OT, and vice versa. Lucas should have stuck with making the PT fit the OT, not vice versa.

I saw him on Late Night with Seth Meyers last week and he seems like a real humble guy. He was also asked about Episode 7 by Meyers and joked if he divulged information there would be a bunch of stormtroopers waiting for him outside. The one thing I have noticed is the ST cast seems a lot more enthusiastic about the movies then many in the PT cast did.

A little informant in the comments section of this very site has insisted that Andy Serkis is playing a non-motion-capture character and a Rancor. Though I’m certain he’ll be playing something akin to what Chewbacca was for the Original Trilogy and Jar Jar attempted to be for the Prequel Trilogy (had he been done right); I suspect he’ll be the “alien buddy” for the Sequel Trilogy.

That would just be irritating. Imagine if Ian Mcdiarmid played some imperial general as well as the emperor in ROTJ? It would just ruin it. It made sense in the prequels because the two persona’s were still the same character.

By the way, have you folks SEEN Dawn of the Planet of the Apes yet? Unbelievable! The best film of the year, so far! And Serkis is amazing as is the almost wall to wall CGI in the movie. I’m very glad he’s on board Star Wars!

From Anon 1:29am: “the one thing that cast members are allowed to say: the ST will honor the OT and be nothing like the PT.” I do not believe this to be an entirely accurate statement. At the very least, it is certainly rather misleading. Technically, Serkis never even mentioned the PT. One may argue that by stating how JJ would be “honouring the original three films”
a dis at the prequels is IMPLIED, but that’s an entirely subjective thing. I’ve never actually seen one direct quote from any of the main participants in this production that outright dissed the PT. Can someone please post a direct quote from one of the main cast and crew that directly disses the prequels? Opinions from JJ that pre-date him getting the director’s chair shouldn’t count.

They’ll probably thaw out the cast of Star Wars Rebels who’ve been frozen in carbonite since before ANH and he’ll be playing Zeb! Not saying I personally want that but I’ve not seen this theory discussed on any site…

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to assume that I couldn’t exactly not say that it is or isn’t almost partially incorrect. On the contrary. I’m possibly more or less not definitely rejecting the idea that in no way with any amount of uncertainty that I undeniably…do or do not know what Serkin shouldn’t probably be, if that indeed wasn’t what he isn’t. Even if he wasn’t what I knew he was, that’d mean I’d really have to know what he wasn’t.

The OT is universally loved, and the PT is generally liked outside of the fanbase, while the fans are split on the quality of those movies. Therefore, it’s only logical that they would go with comparisons to the more popular set of films.

I would also note that none of the production team have smack-talked the Prequels since getting on board with the project.

Of course none of the cast or crew hasn’t talked smack about the prequels. They aren’t allowed to. Be kinda like biting the hand that feeds you.
But… they are allowed to say if they like them. Which none of them have, leading to the logical assumption that they don’t care for them.
All they’ve talked about is how great the OT is and how they want to replicate the feel of the older movies.
And I don’t think the PT is generally liked outside of the fan base. My friend Kelly had never seen any of the Star Wars. So I showed her the OT and she asked if she could see ep. 1. So I let her borrow it. She said she turned it off after the first 20 minutes.
(generally) Only people who grew up with the prequels and around Star Wars like the prequels.
Its fine if you like the prequels, just don’t call the people who don’t a minority and say nostalgia is the only reason we don’t like them.

Yeah. The PT guys always get defensive because they love their trilogy. Which again is totally fine. However it’s just widely known and accepted that the PT is generally considered a flop in storytelling and overall execution. The minority is in fact the PT lovers.

It’s funny that this is even an argument really. It’s like when people claim a vocal minority made Microsoft change it’s policies with Xbox One. No the backlash was so massive and world wide… it made a company change it’s entire future vision of it’s product. No minority does that.

I think the PT lovers are to young to remember the backlash the PT trilogy got. It was massive and world wide as well. There is a reason it still burns so strong today.

Pomojema got it right on this one, folks. From this point forward, anyone claiming that key members of the AVCO cast and/or crew have publically made disparaging remarks about the Prequel Trilogy since Episode VII began production, will need to post actual verified quotes to back up their claims.

Here we see another dismissing of the prequels. I would like to remind everyone that the OT was not perfect. ROTJ was a fairly weak and poorly acted film (still loved it, though). Conversely, the PT had ROTS which was great.
Also, the more comments about “honoring the OT” I see, makes me think that the ST will simply hack the OT. Let’s have a trilogy with a different feel to it! Why not take a chance? I hope this is all marketing BS.

Exactly. There was no fall, no romance, no friendship in the movies. We were told there was but it certainly wasn’t happening on screen. The characters transformations had the subtlety of a lightswitch.